Ask an Organiser: How was the Coalition of Offshore Wind rally in Wollongong?

A lifelong surfer, longtime local and Stanwell Park Community Forum admin, Grant Drinkwater was one of the organisers of the Coalition Against Offshore Wind’s rally at Flagstaff Hill on Sunday, October 29.

Grant – who regular readers may remember launched a web-based start-up called Save On Shave along with fellow ex-Qantas flight crew members in 2021 – is now working in the arts and entertainment industry, although currently most of his time is dedicated to volunteering with the Coalition Against Offshore Wind (CAOW).

“It's just overtaken my life at the moment,” says Grant, a CAOW spokesperson and one of the Facebook admins. “From five o'clock in the morning till 11 at night.

“I've been a surfer for 50 years, so I basically surfed nearly every day of my life. I love the ocean and the things that it gives us. I love plants and nature; I'm a horticulturist as well. I just enjoy all things about the beauty of the surroundings – and the Illawarra particularly has been just a fantastic place for me. I came down from Newcastle 25 years ago and I really just love the area and that's what's given me the motivation to be involved with this.”

Sunday’s rally attracted more than 1000 people, Grant says. Politicians present included One Nation MP Tani Milhailik, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MP Mark Banasiak and independent Kiama MP Gareth Ward.

“The rally was fantastic," Grant says. "It was a great day. It was a great crowd.

“[Flagstaff Hill] was a great place to have it. It was such a perfect day and the whales were actually breaching behind us when we were there. And then Josh [Palmer] had his paddle-out going on as well. We thought it was a really good turnout.

“The highlight for me was just the broad range of opinions and the broad range of people who are involved, from younger people to older people, to the professional people like the fishermen and the lobster fishermen. It was great that a broad range of people were able to have their say in a public forum.”

CAOW’s campaign has been funded by donations and T-shirt sales, Grant says. “We're still just a grassroots organisation, just trying to do our best. So at this stage we're just funding ourselves and all of us have put our money in and all our time to do it.”

Now that the rally is over, Grant would like to encourage all residents to send their feedback to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

“The 15th of November is the big date,” Grant says.

“If we can get as many submissions in as possible by then, that would be great."

Grant is critical of the government’s submission process, describing it as “obfuscated”.

“They really made the submission process quite difficult because it's online, it's called a petition. And when you fill it in, it's actually a four-page survey, which goes through a whole range of questions about what you think about the offshore wind turbines. And then at the very end of it, it says, oh, would you like to put in a submission? They won't accept paper submissions. It has to be done online.”

Asked if the group’s goal is to stop offshore turbines altogether or if it’s negotiable, Grant said he is undecided and there are many opinions across the various social media groups.

“There's a lot of people involved,” he says.

“My opinion would be that I'm not 100% against offshore wind turbines. For me, if they put them 50km out in the ocean – there’s more wind out there, you get out of the whale migration zones … there would still be a lot of issues around it, but then you wouldn't even see them from the shore at all.

"I just think this particular area is not really suited to it. And is the Australian coastline suited to it? Is there anywhere that we want to give up?

“I'm a supporter of renewable energy and I think the bulk of the people in the group are as well. We’re not climate deniers. We don't deny that possibly there is a changing climate, but is this the right way to go? I think that's the big question.”

In Grant's view, the energy transition needs to be “more strategic”.

“It's something that the government needs to have a proper grown-up discussion about  … instead of just coming out with these crazy ideas and just throwing it up and all of a sudden we're going to save the world by putting a couple of hundred wind turbines off the sea. It just doesn't work like that, unfortunately – that’s my personal opinion, not the group’s.”

It’s been a whirlwind four weeks since this Stanwell Park resident first got involved and started delving into offshore wind and reading many different government reports.

“We’ve ridden the learning curve,” he says.

“It's been crazy. We've run three town hall meetings in that time. We've delivered 25,000 pamphlets. We had the rally yesterday with over a thousand people. We've been on radio, TV, newspapers. It's been incredible.

“Isn't it great in a way that anyone can get involved, and really have a go about things if they're really passionate about them? I think we should be very proud of the country we live in and proud of the media as well, because I have to say that we've had really good coverage from all media. The mainstream media has been fantastic. They've really listened to what we've had to say and given us a platform to say it.”

Federal Member for Cunningham Alison Byrnes has warned residents to watch out for online misinformation, which in the age of AI has become so sophisticated that it can take a senior academic to spot fake news. Grant agrees this is “a tricky one”.

“The New South Wales Professional Fishers Association website, all the articles on there have been double fact-checked, according to them. That is a great website.”

With the volume of articles being posted on Facebook, he says it can be “very difficult” to check everything. “I know that Thirroul Living [Facebook group] had the same dramas as well, where they had something like 50 posts an hour on wind turbines.

“We have tried to be as factual as we can … What we've tried to do is actually just to let people know what's going on. This is what they're proposing, this is why we don't agree with it, what do you think about it? If you want to disagree, this is what you should do.”

As well as CAOW, Grant continues as admin of the Stanwell Park Community Forum on Facebook. “I try to stay neutral in relation to that.”

Grant agrees with the idea that the two sides in the offshore wind debate share a common love for the ocean and this may form a basis for future discussions. In particular, he’d like to know how scientists plan to research the whales’ migration route.

The current consultation closes in two weeks, but Grant hopes that his group will continue to play an advocacy role.

“We just try and be as factual as we can, and try and be realistic, and try to do it for the benefit of the community. That's really what it's all about.”

Aerial photography thanks to Kramer Photography's Above Down Under project, follow on Facebook and Instagram.

Have your say

The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water is calling for feedback on the Illawarra offshore area proposed for future renewable energy projects. Click here to have your say by November 15.

Questions welcome

Do you have a question about offshore wind? Please submit via the Flame's Get In Touch page.

Independent experts at the University of Wollongong have compiled a list of FAQs, which can be read on the Blue Energy Futures Lab website. Here the team share evidence-based research from around the world on various aspects of offshore wind farms, summarise the findings of that research to make it more accessible to the public, highlight where they think more research needs to be done and generally provide people with information to better understand the issues involved. The Blue Energy Futures Lab has not received any industry funding and does not have any industry collaborations.

Find more Ask An Expert articles in the Flame's Road to Renewables section.